Theater Group Is A Family Affair

Parents And Kids Share The Magic Of Performance

New Lenox resident Laurel Alvarez has a theory of sorts: The family that plays together in community theater stays together--and has a great time.

"It's so much fun to have a family project, something that we all feel good about," said Alvarez, 46, about her family's involvement with the Lincoln-Way Theatre Guild.

Each of the four members of the Alvarez family is active with the guild.

Alvarez is a backstage and offstage volunteer, helping out with projects such as painting sets and selling concessions. Her husband, Mitch, 46, a musician and singer, also has helped out backstage and has been a performer in two guild productions, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and "Pump Boys and Dinettes."

The Alvarez's daughter, Allison, 15, has been in a number of productions: "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," "Oliver," "The Music Man" and an annual guild outdoor summer musical revue.

Their son, Luke, 13, has performed in "Oliver," "The Music Man" and the summer concert.

"Sometimes things can be quite hectic around here," said Laurel Alvarez, referring to the family's schedules in different productions.

The family became active with the theater guild in late 1996, not long after they moved to New Lenox from Tinley Park.

"My daughter had previously been in a production of `Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' at Andrew High School when were living in Tinley Park," Laurel Alvarez said. "She was in the 6th-grade choir and auditioned for a role and made it. And when she got to Martino Junior High she heard about the auditions for the guild's version of `Joseph' and got excited about it. She tried out and made it."

When Mitch Alvarez took his daughter to the audition, he also was recruited for the production.

"They needed males for the cast, so they were basically going around asking all the dads who were there to try out," he said. "We still had to audition. They said you have to sing and dance, and of course, I sang. But the only dancing I have ever done was in a twist contest. But they said as long as you can walk, you can do the dance steps."

Soon afterward, Laurel Alvarez started pitching in.

"I got involved because it's the type of thing where you want to help out," she said. "I just started to meet the other women with the group and we became friendly picking up the kids from practice. I asked if there was anything I could do."

She took on jobs including ushering and helping with bulk mailing.

In early 1998, Laurel Alvarez helped out again when both of her children had roles in "Oliver." Around the same time, Mitch Alvarez was brought in to play stand-up bass and sing in "Pump Boys and Dinettes."

"That was the point where our whole family sort of got involved," Laurel Alvarez said. "The stage for `Pump Boys' was right by an ice cream parlor, and they needed people to be waitresses to get ice cream for the audience. So my daughter and I started doing that, wearing 1950s hair nets and chewing gum.

"It was a lot of fun for all of us, and my daughter ended up getting a job at the ice cream parlor after that," Laurel Alvarez said.

Since then, most of the family has participated with just about every guild production. "We just enjoy being part of this," she said. "There are so many rewards."

For example, she said she "loves the adrenalin rush of being up close to a production."

"There's so much excitement watching everybody, including the kids, rush around backstage," she said. "And there's fun in wanting to be backstage but wanting to be watching them from the audience at the same time. It's just the best."

Preparing for a show also is thrilling, she said.

"During the dress rehearsal for `The Music Man' we were doing some last-minute painting of the drawbridge scene, and later that night the actresses were standing on the bridge," Laurel Alvarez said. "We, of course, were frantic and saying, `Be careful, the paint is still wet.' "

And then there are the nail-biting moments, she said.

"At the second production of `Oliver,' my son got nauseous, and we didn't know if he would make it through," she said. "And then we discovered it was partly that his pants were too tight. There was a seamstress backstage who let out his pants right then and there, and he felt better and went on."

Another reward is spending time with the other volunteers, especially the younger ones, Laurel Alvarez said.

"Theater kids are just the best," she said. "They're just so much fun. When we have all these kids over to the house, it's not like they kick my husband and me out. They love us and they all give us hugs."

"The whole experience just gives the kids a good feeling and some self-esteem, and that's what it's all about, especially with all the trouble going on in high schools today."